Chapter 1333: The Terrifying Statue
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Wolf King found it incredibly strange too.
Most of the Turan epics were spread by word of mouth, so there were indeed some parts that were exaggerated and exaggerated.
However, the epic battle between the stomach-less king and the Demonic Abyss insect was witnessed by a large number of lion and tiger warriors, so many details appeared in different epics.
Even the Bear Clan’s priestess had to exaggerate the bravery of their ancestors.
The lion and tiger warriors did not need to vouch for a Bear Clan warrior.
“I’ve seen details of the stomach-less king and the Demonic Abyss insects’ fierce battle in at least four war epics of different origins. Two of them mentioned that the stomach-less king was spat out by the Demonic Abyss insects. One from the Tiger Clan mentioned that the stomach-less king was saved by the lion and tiger warriors by cutting open the stomach of the Demonic Abyss insects. Another from the Bear Clan mentioned that the stomach-less king was forced out by biting through the stomach of the Demonic Abyss insects.”
The Wolf King muttered, “But no matter how he got out, in order to defeat the Demonic Abyss insects, the stomach-less king had to pay the price of his limbs and facial features. His flesh and blood were almost completely corroded, and his internal organs were directly exposed to the air.
“Three of the war epics even described the stomach of the stomach-less king in detail with thick ink and heavy color, as well as his intestines, which were even thicker than a python, to show his valor.
“It is said that his intestines were wriggling like thunder. Even after his death, the terrifying thunder lasted for three days and three nights. It was as if it was not his brain that controlled the stomach-less king, but his intestines.
“Therefore, your suspicion is very reasonable. If this was really the corpse of the stomach-less king, it should not have been so complete. At the very least, his internal organs should have been exposed.
“No, not only the stomach-less king, but also the ‘fist’, and almost all the ORC champions standing here.
“Logically speaking, the legendary heroes who are qualified to stand here are all beings who value honor far more than life. They will never be willing to let time slowly take away their strength and allow their wrinkles to slowly strangle them to death like a net of death.
“According to Tulanze’s tradition, when their power reaches its peak, they foresee that they will enter the stage of aging, just like the brilliant sun at noon that will stumble into the darkness. These legendary heroes will challenge the most powerful enemy.
“They will either charge into the nest of the totem beasts alone.
“Or, they will take the lead in the Battle of Glory and charge at the mages, night watchers, Elf Archers, and dwarven cannoneers who are hundreds of times more numerous than them.
“In short, a legendary hero of Turanze will not let young people see his old appearance, nor will he tolerate his own body to remain intact.
“Decapitation is a common occurrence. Four broken limbs and a halved waist are barely enough to meet the standard. Only when they are torn to pieces and even burnt to ashes by the mages’fireb.a.l.l.s can their souls hold their heads high and step into the temple of the sacred mountain to talk and laugh with the more ancient ancestral spirits.
“By such standards, the corpses here are indeed too complete.
“Although many of the corpses were covered in wounds, the bones and internal organs deep in the flesh and blood could be vaguely seen. Many of the corpses even had half of their skulls chopped off.
“However, most of their limbs were still intact, and the cracked skulls were covered with a layer of membrane as thin as cicada’s wings. It was as if they had been repaired by a marvelous workmanship.
“This is really weird. I have explored so many lost temples. Since the temple of the sacred mountain was sealed three thousand years ago, many ordinary temples have become the burial places of the Warriors of Tulan.
“However, I have never seen such a weird burial method and such a weird… corpse
“Maybe, these things are not real corpses.”
Meng Chao moved closer to the corpse of the ‘fist’and activated his extraordinary vision to the maximum. His pupils constricted as he studied the corpse carefully like a microscope. No, it was the surface of the ‘thing’.
By adjusting the magnification of his eyes, Meng Chao was certain that the surface of the ‘thing’did not have the skin chips that ordinary mummies had.
The seemingly thick hair was also faintly emitting a metallic l.u.s.ter.
His “Flesh”did not have the slightest feature of an organic substance. Instead, it had perfectly fused with the broken armor.
It was unknown whether the armor grew out from the flesh or the flesh grew out from under the armor.
“I feel that this is not a corpse. Instead, it looks like a statue made of some unknown material.”
Meng Chao had come into contact with thousands of monster corpses before.
This included his own super star group. Because they had monopolized the supply market of low-end monster materials in Dragon City, they had even become a contractor for the Red Dragon Army’s military monster meat compression cans. In order to extend the shelf life of the monster meat, they had locked up the nutrients in the monster meat and introduced several a.s.sembly lines for rapid dehydration and freezing.
Meng Chao knew very well what the monster’s flesh and blood looked like after rapid dehydration, freezing, and injecting all sorts of preservatives and even high-energy substances.
The monster’s flesh and blood after rapid dehydration was frozen like a block of ice even in an environment of minus ten.
With Meng Chao’s extremely sharp senses, he could easily tell the difference between them and inorganic substances.
What we see here is nothing like the dehydrated, frozen flesh of a monster.
Although Meng Chao could vaguely sense the extremely weak magnetic field activity inside these things.
But he still can’t imagine that these strange statues… were ever of any kind.
“If… they really are statues, then there are even more problems.”
The wolf king frowned deeply and murmured, “Who sculpted and carved them, and for what purpose did you place them here?”?
“Besides, don’t you think that the sculpting style of these statues is too… realistic?”
Indeed, Meng Chao could see it too.
The Tulan Orcs were not devoid of artistic talent.
However, like most of the aggressive barbarians, the artistic style of the Tulan Orcs was also simple and crude. They did as they pleased, following the path of the ‘Beast School’.
For example, the murals that the two of them saw in the tunnel seemed to have been scratched on the walls by the claws of ferocious beasts. They were filled with abstract colors and were extremely rough and bold.
However, the ‘statues’in front of them had reached the end of the road of realism.
On each of the statues, the hair was completely exposed, and the wrinkles between the skin were in accordance with the direction of the muscles. The slightly protruding blood vessels and nerves were faintly emitting a different l.u.s.ter. Even the thick pores.., were carefully carved out.
One had to know that the Tulan Orcs were famous for their thick and messy hair.
Even with Dragon City’s animation and virtual technology, it was not easy to create a tulan orc that looked like a real one on a computer screen.
Not to mention, using such crazy and meticulous processing technology to carve out such a… No, it was thousands of lifelike statues in reality.
Although the serpent-men, crocodile-men, and lizard-men of the Darkmoon clan didn’t have any hair.
But their scales, as well as the unique scratches on each scale, were more difficult to carve than hair.
And what was a hundred times more troublesome than hair and scales was the wound.
Whether it was a knife, axe, sword, spear, or being bitten by fierce beasts, being burned by magic flames, or being penetrated by magic lightning… the wounds caused by different reasons all had complicated and unique forms.
Experts like Meng Chao and the Wolf King who read corpses could tell at a glance the angle at which a particular wound was cut, whether it was a fatal wound or a fake wound that was cut after death. They could even deduce the entire process of the fierce battle by reading the wound.., . .
However, they “Read”dozens of statues, but did not see any flaws in the wound.
In fact, after Meng Chao carefully observed the statues of “Fist”and “Glutton King”, he found that the distribution, depth, and shape of all the wounds roughly matched the records in the war epic that the Wolf King had told him.
This was also the main reason why the two of them had treated these statues as mummies in the beginning.
When a cold, dead object was sculpted into a living human figure by incredible technology, but the material used to create it was completely different from a real person, it would easily make a real living person.., feel a chill run down their spine.
Experts and scholars on earth called this phenomenon the valley of terror effect.
At this moment, Meng Chao and Wolf King felt as if they had fallen into a bottomless valley of terror.
“Who, what kind of tools, techniques, and materials were used, and for what purpose did they create these statues?”
The two of them looked at each other.
They could see the confusion in each other’s eyes and the slightly twitching muscles at the corners of their eyes.
At this moment —
“Dong!”
A soft sound suddenly came from the depths of the silent group of statues. It was hard to tell if it was the sound of footsteps or drums.
Meng Chao and the Wolf King’s pupils contracted to their limits at the same time.
“Did you hear that? Did the sound really come from the depths of the square formation, or was it my auditory hallucination?”
“I heard it. To be honest, I don’t know if everything in front of me is more terrifying than an illusion, or if everything in front of me is more terrifying than reality.”
“Wait, do you feel that… Something has changed in this place? I can’t tell. I keep feeling that something is wrong. It’s different from when we first stepped on this high platform.”
“Yes, it’s under our feet!”
Meng Chao and Wolf King looked at their feet at the same time.
The high platform was originally covered with a layer of extremely sticky black substance that was similar to the humus in the primitive jungle.
When they stepped onto the high platform, their feet were slightly immersed in the black humus.
However, the black humus was extremely dense and sticky in the beginning. There was almost no mobility, only less than the instep of their feet.
Even if they stepped on the black humus and kept moving forward, there wasn’t the slightest ripple.
But now, the stickiness of the black humus was disappearing.
As the two of them moved, ripples appeared on the black humus around their feet.
It was as if the black humus was slowly melting from its 3,000 years of sealing.